Emily Zoladz | The Grand Rapids PressNorth Kent Sewer Authority Director Larry Campbell opens the door to an influent screen in the Headworks building, part of the PARCC Side Clean Water Plant campus last week. The facility uses bioreactors, membrane filters and ultraviolet disinfection to produce clean water for discharge into the Grand River. One year after five suburban communities defected from Grand Rapids’ sewer system and opened their treatment plant, Rockford City Manager Michael Young says he has no regrets.

“I can’t stress enough on the positives,” said Young, who also serves as chairman of the North Kent Sewer Authority. “We’re really right on target.”

The city of Rockford and Plainfield, Alpine, Cannon and Courtland townships built the plant at 3775 Coit Ave. NE in Plainfield Township after refusing to accept new contract terms from Grand Rapids.

Michael YoungYoung insisted the plant’s future is bright despite a couple of unexpected hits to its rate base in its first year.

The biggest blow came for Rockford customers in January, when Wolverine World Wide Inc. announced it would close its tannery. That meant Rockford lost its biggest customer for the new plant — one that made up 25 percent of the city’s flow into the system.

City officials, who already had raised rates $7.50 a month per household to pay for the plant, raised them another $10. The other communities will share the pain on a smaller scale, Young said.

The second blow has come from the housing slump. The new plant’s rate structure counted on at least 350 new sewer hookups a year, bringing in more than $1 million annually to help retire debt.

But new hookups have generated only about $634,000 this year, and member communities must make up the $368,000 shortfall.

In Plainfield Township, the shortage of housing starts contributed to a 10-percent rate increase for 2010. That means the average homeowner’s sewer bill will go up $32.56 next year. Another 10 percent rate increase for Plainfield residents will follow in 2011.

Looking out of the plant’s spacious offices toward the barnlike buildings of the $47 million sewage treatment plant, Young said it offers more benefits than meet the eye.

“You really can’t ignore the environmental benefit of what we’re trying to do,” he said.

The new plant, which emits nary an odor on its farmlike setting, returns drinkable water back to the Grand River.

The sludge removed by its state-of-the art membrane filters is trucked to an Ottawa County landfill, where it feeds methane gas wells that power electrical generators.

The 10 years of planning to build the plant also improved regional cooperation, Young said.

“We’ve got five pretty different communities,” he said. “The fact that we did this together — we’ve agreed every step of the way.”

Building a state-of-the-art treatment plant was financially risky, but leaders of the five communities said they believed the numbers would work when they looked Grand Rapids’ new contract demands on its suburban customers.

The city’s contract terms were based on a “growth pays for growth” rates that penalized urban sprawl. They were far higher than the original contracts, set low to treat as much suburban sewage flow as possible.

Despite the cost of the new plant and the rate setbacks of the past year, Young insists the numbers still work.

By not signing the contracts Grand Rapids insisted on 10 years ago, the five communities have saved their ratepayers $11.5 million, he said.

“For the city of Rockford, the cost of building the wastewater treatment plant was $100,000 less per year than staying with Grand Rapids,” he said.

Peter McGregor, Cannon’s supervisor, said rates have gone up for the 1,900 customers in his township because they are rebuilding eight lift stations that pump sewage to the plant.

“Our rate structure is more fair and equitable now,” said McGregor, whose township charges each residential customer a flat fee of $95 per quarter.

Courtland Township Supervisor James McIntyre said his municipality’s 450 customers have seen rates rise to $130 per quarter mainly because of repairs needed to the pipelines that carry sewage to the new plant.

“By now, we would have paid Grand Rapids at least $5 million more in the last few year if we had signed their new contracts,” he said. “The way we’re set up with lot sizes, it would have hit us awfully hard.”

The decline in new customers is “very frightening” and could result in even more increases, Arends said.

“If there’s not going to be any growth for the next 10 years, I don’t have a clue where we would be,” he said.

Back in Grand Rapids, Deputy City Manager Eric DeLong said the five suburbs might have seen smaller rate increases if they had stayed within the city’s larger system.

How much?

“It’s one of those unknowable numbers,” DeLong said.

For Grand Rapids Township customers who stayed with Grand Rapids, sewer bills also have gone up. Township residents whose quarterly sewer bills averaged $113.94 last year will see their quarterly bills jump to $136.47 next year — a 22.5 percent jump, according to the latest rate study.

Overall, Grand Rapids’ sewer customers will see sewer rate increasea of 14.8 percent because of rising operating costs and system improvements.

DeLong said the latest rate increases are not related to the North Kent defections. Those losses were covered by a one-time 6 percent increase last year and another rate increase related to the defections is not expected, he said.

Meanwhile, the loss of customers means the city has more time before it needs to invest in another plant expansion, DeLong said.